Freshmen Transition to High School

by Jaydon Pfab

Almost everyone in our country attends school from Kindergarten all the way through high school. In high school, kids might get nervous having to switch classes in a whole new building with all new teachers. It's a really big step and can be very overwhelming for students who aren’t ready for a large jump. Everyone finds a way to get through high school,  Let's see how one freshman student, Isaac Helminiak, deals with this large step in life.

         Isaac Helminiak is a new high school student this year but he already has experience with high school life. He is on the advanced course for math class and had algebra in the high school side of the building. Even so, he said that he was still quite nervous coming down to the high school side of the building permanently. He was nervous about having an all new locker with almost all new people in the halls with him. He said “It sucks being the smallest grade again. You get the lowest authority out of everyone.” He likes the classes; however, it was very jarring for him to have almost all brand new teachers for his classes. The only exception was his math teacher. He likes his new teachers, it is just really strange getting taught by all new people, he said.

          When I asked how high school compared to middle school in the difficulty sense, he said that it was generally the same. He said that he isn’t particularly worried about his finals this year because he already had a final for algebra in middle school. “The first final was a bit nerve racking I guess. It really wasn’t that bad,” he said. Isaac says that tests have always been easy for him, however. One thing he thinks is harder though is the self-drive. He said that in middle school, everything was due at a certain time and had a specific time it would be late. Now, he says, everything is due in a month or at the end of the semester. Nothing has a for sure due date and he can’t write things down like he used to. He said that it’s harder since you have to pay attention to due dates while also worrying about things that are coming up that week. The way he gets through this is by taking notes in his phone of all that is due. They remind him when things are coming close to being due so that he can hurry and get working on them.

          High school also brings in problems like stress. High school is considerably more stressful for people when they not only need to worry about school work, but also have to worry about clubs and upcoming events. Juniors have to worry about the ACT and seniors have to worry about scholarships. Most students get jobs to help pay for cars or even help with family expenses. Even though he is a freshman, Isaac still needs to worry about things like this for the future. He needs to decide what he wants to do when he grows up. For now, he says he wants to join the army and serve for a term while going through their college program. When he gets back from serving, he wants to join the workforce.

         I asked Isaac if he was nervous when he started high school and he said he wasn’t very stressed for most things. One thing he was stressed about was all of the new faces and being the smallest fish in the sea. He said that the way he got over it was by thinking that all of the people really aren’t new. He has seen them for a few years now, plus, he was friends with high schoolers even before he was one himself. He said that having friends in high school really helped to give him a view of what high school was like and how the workload compared to middle school. Isaac said, “It really gave me a look into high school. I guess I already kind of knew what high school was about because of my friends.” For new or upcoming freshman Isaac said, “high school really isn’t that different. Don’t stress because the only thing that is going to make high school hard is if you let it be hard. Just keep moving on and don’t let little things bother you.”